Conspiracies
by James Lee
Summary: Paths cross again fourteen years after Third Impact.
1. Back

------  
Conspiracies  
----  
  
The guards dragged the prisoner into the cold, dimly-lit interrogation  
room. He was garbed in dirty-gray prison uniform, his wrists bound by  
handcuffs behind his back, his eyes blindfolded, his face smudged and  
unshaven. The guards brusquely threw him down on his knees in front  
of the prim young Captain.  
  
"Leave us," she ordered, in an angry bark. The guards left quickly, efficiently,  
in a rhythmic shuffle of boots, and closed the metal door behind them with a  
heavy echoing clang.  
  
The Captain approached her prisoner with deliberate slowness, then in one violent  
motion she roughly yanked the blindfold away from him, forcing him to yelp in pain,   
as he fell, cursing, to the floor.   
  
"Well, I hope you're happy," she said softly, menacingly. "Have you  
no idea in your empty cranium what trouble you've caused?"  
  
Through the blurred vision of his beaten-up eyes, the captured spy stared up at  
his captor. He regarded blue eyes ablaze with anger, pointed like steel daggers at  
him. Blue eyes on a pretty face that still looked young, a red beret crowning her long  
auburn-red hair. The insolent mouth. The old familiar scowl, the menacing growl.   
Ikari's gaijin bitch still looks as pretty as ever, he thought to himself, feeling a   
sudden pang of sorrow for his long lost friend.  
  
"Have you nothing to say for yourself?" she continued, her voice growing louder.   
  
The tired spy could still imagine, despite the pain wracking his head and his body, what   
the tall silhouette of the Captain's body looked like, under the skirt of that red US   
Air Force dress uniform. He suppressed a grim grin starting to form on his lips,  
remembering how they, the cocky young Stooges and the insolent girl, had first met   
years earlier.  
  
His reverie was prompty rewarded with a slap to the face, hurling him  
backwards to the floor.  
  
Oh, that hurt.  
  
"What the hell have you done to yourself now, Suzuhara!?" she screamed. The rising   
anger in her voice sent a strange shiver down his spine. "When is it going to stop!?"  
  
Touji struggled to lift himself up despite the handcuffs. He sighed,   
glaring sullenly back at her. He wondered, within the ball of rage in his  
heart, how a certain other mean girl he once knew would have looked like  
had, she not...  
  
"This was personal, Soryu," he finally whispered, bowing his head to close his  
eyes. "Hikari was your friend, once. You... you of all people should understand!"  
  
"Oh, damn you to hell!"  
  
"I've been in hell for fourteen years, Captain," he replied icily, glaring back   
at her. "No thanks to the Ikaris."  
  
He closed his eyes then, to wait for the blow he knew was coming.  
  
Only it didn't.  
  
He opened his eyes, after what seemed to him to be a long time, and glanced  
up at his interrogator. But her back was turned to him now.  
  
"Take him away," she ordered, matter-of-factly.   
  
The prison door opened, and the guards came back, and roughly dragged him  
away.  
  
The Captain, the former Asuka Langley Soryu, stood alone for a long while afterwards.   
And eventually, in the dark, she raised a hand to her left cheek, to wipe away her tears.  
  
***  
  
"It's a message from the Euro-American task force in Kadena, sir.   
From Captain Langley."  
  
"Yes?" The young officer continued to stare out the window of his  
office, his back to his subordinate.  
  
"It says: 'As agreed upon among the civilian authorities in Denver,  
Geneva, and Beijing, the assassination of General Waseda of the UN  
Transitional Authority for Japan is to be treated as an  
internal matter for the United Nations Command to settle on its own.   
Hence, the suspect will be turned over to you at the Tokyo-3 DMZ, Checkpoint  
Alpha, at 1400 hours tomorrow. Standard DMZ procedures apply, and as  
such I have requested General Zhao to send a representative of the  
Russo-China Brigade to witness the prisoner turnover.   
Regards,   
Captain Asuka Langley Soryu, USAF  
Oberstleutnant, Luftwaffe von Bundesrepublik Deutschland  
CO, 2nd Special Operations Wing, II Fallschirmjäger Geschwader,   
Euro-American Brigade, UN Command' "  
  
"I see. You know what this means, Lieutenant."  
  
"Sir, Langley's unit is the only one authorized to use S2-powered aircraft   
and AT-powered infantry armorsuits. That the UN would deploy its most precious   
commandos to do this so-called minor operation can only mean one thing."  
  
"Tell the Captain we will be ready for her prisoner as she requests,  
Lieutenant. I'll leave the details up to you; make it look good, for  
old Zhao's benefit."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"And kindly send a message to Dr. Ibuki and General Hyuuga over in  
Seoul that their missing KGB agent will be back soon. Send it over  
the MAGI link."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"One more thing... Inform the hospital that the patient in Ward 14  
will be having a visitor tonight. After visiting hours. He has my  
authority."  
  
"Uhm, yes sir."  
  
The young captain turned to face his exec. "Dismissed."  
  
He returned the younger officer's salute, waited for his subordinate to  
leave and close the door, before he turned to look back out the  
window, at the dead artificial lake of the Geofront and the ruins of  
its pyramid. No man's land, off limits to the Great Powers for the  
past decade, by order of the United Nations Security Council. It was  
his unit's job to enforce the quarantine on its deadly secrets.  
  
He stood there, pensive, for a long while. Pondering the reawakening ghosts of  
his past.  
  
"Damn it. You have to stay alive, Touji old buddy, we have work to  
do, here and now," he whispers. "Revenge isn't going to bring her  
back."   
  
Army Captain Kensuke Aida, intelligence officer in the United Nations  
Transitional Authority for Japan (UNTA-J), took his blue  
officer's cap and turned to leave his office, still agonizing over the  
decisions he must soon make.  
  
"And Asuka. What are you planning? Is NERV working for SEELE, or for the UN, or  
for both? Does the Commander have... I don't know..."  
  
***  
  
The Captain stood at attention, squinting her eyes against the solitary  
light behind the black-uniformed figure standing high over her on the Command  
platform.   
  
"Reporting as ordered, Commander."  
  
Irony of ironies, she thought silently to herself, that she would expend  
her lost youth rebelling against authority, and waste her childhood nightmares  
running away from puppetmasters, only to become a soldier in her adulthood.  
Existing simply to obey orders without question. Even orders coming from the person  
that duty obligated her to report to at this troubling, very awkward, moment.  
  
"It has been a while, Second Child."  
  
It was the same cold voice that she remembered from her youth, still the same  
mysterious, inscrutable calm. The Commander's eyes were still hidden behind the  
black glasses, mouth hidden by hands clasped together in almost prayerful thought.  
  
So like the elder Ikari, thought Asuka. She shivered at the realization, and shoved aside  
her thoughts, willing her professional demeanour not to break.  
  
"Our reactivation of the NERV Military Section is proceeding on schedule, Commander. There  
were no unexpected incidents during our takeover of UNTA Japan, since Captain Aida has been  
so cooperative. Also, as instructed by UN Command, my 2nd Special Operations Wing is  
detached from the Euro-American Brigade and officially transferred to NERV, as of today.   
We await your orders, Commander."  
  
"Very good, Captain. I trust that you know what I expect you to do next?"  
  
"I will make arrangements to retrieve the Third Child, Commander. I am certain he  
will not resist."  
  
"Very good, Captain. Please send my thanks to your government for their cooperation-"  
  
"I will pick him up myself. That will reassure him."  
  
"You?"  
  
"Yes, Commander... with your permission, of course."  
  
"Very well, Captain. Subcommander Shigeru will meet with you this afternoon to   
arrange the details. You are dismissed."  
  
"Commander."  
  
The Captain saluted smartly, then turned around on her heels to head out the door, but the   
Commander's voice suddenly stopped her.  
  
"Asuka."  
  
She halted in her tracks, and turned around, uncertainly. "Commander?"  
  
The Commander brought up a hand to her glasses, as if to slide them up her nose, but  
instead she removed them. The Commander's bare, scarlet eyes regarded Asuka,  
as the redhaired Captain secretly wrestled down an urge to flinch under the Commander's  
intense stare.  
  
"It... is good to see you again, Asuka."  
  
"I... well..."  
  
"I must say this before duty forces me to put us all in danger once again. I am...  
glad you are well. You and Shinji."  
  
"Rei, you do know that we... I mean..." Asuka sighed, and continued. "Thank you for  
you concern, Commander."  
  
The Captain turns around, and leaves in a rush, closing the door behind her.  
  
Leaving Commander Ayanami staring, her face expressionless, at the spot that  
Captain Langley had stood on.  
  
***  
  
He's getting too old for this, the morose young man muttered to himself.  
  
The shaking, dilapidated old Boeing 737 had been flying for too long. The  
thought kept turning the young man's knuckles white. A strange thing, to be  
back in civilization, he mumbled silently to himself, as he gazed down out  
the window at the sprawling urban capital of the ASEAN Protectorate, his  
mind blocking out the flight attendant's bored droning instructions  
for the small handful of mostly UN passengers. He scanned the  
now-clear skies. The Indian Air Force fighter escorts that had been  
tailing the old airliner had veered away as the plane made its final  
approach for the airport runway.   
  
He had been asleep during most of this flight from Lhasa to Kuala  
Lumpur. He had been plagued by nightmares throughout the flight, but  
at least the sleeping pills had kept him from thinking about the  
rackety old plane.  
  
To think he used to be a pilot. A long time ago.  
  
Fighter escorts had not been part of the plan for today. His  
security demanded some anonymity, hence he was flying in this  
civilian rustbucket and not in one of the UN's deluxe military  
transports. Someone very high up had apparently changed his mind in  
a hurry.  
  
Something's up, he realized with a shudder. Something really big this  
time. But he would have come even if they hadn't asked. He's had  
vivid nightmares the past several weeks. She's in trouble. She  
needs him.  
  
I wonder how much they've told her, he wondered to himself again. But  
then again she had always had a way of knowing things.  
  
He was still holding her letter clutched in his hand.  
  
The letter had arrived, hand-delivered and sealed, by special British SAS  
courier a few days before. There were no net or radio links to the  
old hilltop monastery that was his refuge in Bhutan, at least to no  
one except the UN secret agents that discreetly haunted the place, and  
the commanders of his unobstrusive Gurkha security detail.   
Still, it had felt good to see her handwriting again. He traced his  
fingers over the words, as if by doing so he could touch her hands  
again.   
  
He sighed wearily, and closed his eyes.  
  
"Shinji-kun," she had written. "I know we had agreed not to see each  
other or to contact each other again until... well, until the time  
felt right. But my unit has received orders to prepare for your  
arrival, and I volunteered to personally make the arrangements for  
you. In fact, I'll meet you in KL for the shuttle hop to Clark Air Base. I hope  
you don't mind. I don't know what our scheming politicians, or your sister, have in  
mind for us this time, but... you know how I feel about your straying  
into danger again. God only knows what you'd do without me holding  
your hand. I hope you will at least talk to me, for old time's sake,  
baka. With love, Asuka."  
  
He'd be seeing her again in a few minutes. For the first time in  
three years. All that time in the monastery, with the old  
monks, had given him a sort of peace. But with her...  
  
There was something.  
  
They had come to a secret, mutual understanding fourteen years before.  
  
The intervening years had shoved it aside, in favor of common reality.  
  
Life had blurred his understanding.  
  
Yet it was still there. Like a whisper he was afraid of voicing out,  
lest it slip past him again.  
  
He'd be seeing her again in a few more minutes.  
  
He fidgeted uncertainly with the ring on his finger. Come to think of  
it, he had never gotten rid of it; he had secretly continued wearing  
it.  
  
Even after the separation.  
  
With a sudden lurch, he felt the noisy thud of the airliner's tires  
touching down on the runway, the rolling motion of the wheels against  
solid unyielding ground, the reassuring force of the wind roaring in  
a decrescendo against the old plane's grounded wings.  
  
He would not allow SEELE to take them again, he promised to himself. He would   
see the reason for his promise in a few more minutes.  
  
***  
  
To be continued. 


	2. Pieces

/***  
Author's Notes:   
This is just a teaser to the next chapter, and the scenes for the Shinji/Asuka back story   
are still being crafted in my head, but since I'll be gone on a long vacation  
overseas, I thought I'd just throw what I already have out there. C&C appreciated.  
***/  
  
  
In the silent, gravelike confines of an empty room, a door suddenly slid open, admitting  
a shaft of light. A woman's silhouette passed through the light, before the door closed  
once again.   
  
Small footsteps echoed through the dark cavernous room. The frail, solitary figure walked  
into the center of the shadowy arena, and stopped several meters in front of an obelisk.  
  
"I know you're in here," whispered the figure, her voice cold, firm.  
  
Slowly, slowly, a dozen obelisks surrounding the woman lit up, like awakening ghosts.  
  
"Welcome back, Ayanami," answered a grim, ancient voice. "We knew all along, that you'd  
come back to us."  
  
"Kihl... give it up," answered Rei, almost dispassionately. "You can finance a hundred  
more wars and atrocities and we still won't return NERV's secrets to you. Give it up.   
Just give it up. I grow weary of this."  
  
The voice from the front obelisk answered her with a bark, and with derisive laughter   
that was immediately echoed by his peers, in a growing symphony of scorn.  
  
"The young traitor blames us for the evils she chose to perpetuate!" hissed a voice  
from an obelisk to her right. "Ikari-spawn, open your eyes to the consequences of your  
choices."  
  
"You grow weary of your guilt, Commander Ayanami," accused a voice from an obelisk  
to her left. "The late Commander Ikari would have been pleased to know of your guilt   
for betraying him. A pity, that he's gone."  
  
"I have never doubted that I did the right thing," she calmly retorted. While she   
furtively clenched her fists at her sides.  
  
"Really? Was it right for Yui to betray the man who dedicated his existence to her?"  
  
"You cannot fault Yui for choosing their son's happiness."  
  
"Your son's happiness! Is he really happy now, Ayanami? Is his estranged wife happy?   
Is his former best friend happy?" growled Kihl, in a voice dripping now with   
bitter sympathy. "The wounds left by the elder Ikaris and Soryus are too deep to excise.  
You can still save the Eva Pilots, Ayanami. You can save the world from its pain.   
And, most importantly... Yui can still have her Gendo back."  
  
And, amidst their fading laughter, the lights from the obelisks faded, leaving the  
young Commander alone again in the dark.  
  
She had not been standing there, alone with her troubled thoughts, for too long when   
she felt felt the gun on her back.  
  
*** 


	3. Ashes To Ashes, Dust To Dust

Part 2: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust  
  
------  
  
In the silent, gravelike confines of an empty room, a door suddenly slid open, admitting  
a shaft of light. A woman's silhouette passed through the light, before the door closed  
once again.   
  
Small footsteps echoed through the dark cavernous room. The straight, solitary figure walked  
into the center of a shadowy arena, and stopped several meters in front of an obelisk.  
  
"I know you're in here," whispered the figure, her voice cold, firm.  
  
Slowly, slowly... a dozen obelisks surrounding the woman lit up, like awakening ghosts,  
murmuring with the irritation and glee of beasts awakened from a long sleep.  
  
"Welcome back, Ayanami," answered a grim, ancient voice. "We knew all along, that you'd  
come back to us."  
  
"Kihl... give it up," answered Rei, almost dispassionately. "You can finance a hundred  
more wars and atrocities and we still won't return NERV's secrets to you. Stop  
slaughtering the innocent. Give it up. Just give it up. I grow weary of this."  
  
The voice from the front obelisk answered her with a bark, and with derisive laughter   
that was immediately echoed by his peers, in a growing symphony of scorn.  
  
"The young traitor blames us for the evils she chose to perpetuate!" hissed a voice  
from an obelisk to her right. "Ikari-spawn, open your eyes to the consequences of your  
choices."  
  
"You grow weary of your guilt, Commander Ayanami," accused a female voice from an obelisk  
to her left. "The late Commander Ikari would have been pleased to know of your guilt   
for betraying him. A pity, that he's dead. No thanks to you."  
  
"I have never doubted that I did the right thing," she calmly retorted. While she   
furtively clenched her suddenly shaking fists at her sides.  
  
"Really? Was it right for Yui to betray the man who dedicated his entire, pathetic  
existence to her?"  
  
"You cannot fault Yui for choosing their son's happiness."  
  
"Your son's happiness! Is he really happy now, Ayanami? Is his estranged wife Soryu happy?   
Is his former best friend Suzuhara happy?" growled Kihl, in a voice dripping now with   
bitter sympathy. "The wounds left by the elder Ikaris and Soryus are too deep to excise.  
You can still save the Eva Pilots, Ayanami! You can save the world from its pain."  
  
"And, most importantly..." whispered the female voice of SEELE, "Yui can still have   
her Gendo back."  
  
And, amidst their fading laughter, the lights from the obelisks faded, leaving the  
young Commander alone, once again, in the dark.  
  
She had not been standing there, alone with her troubled thoughts, for too long when   
she felt felt the gun on her back.  
  
***  
  
He had spent hours poking around these abandoned tunnels and corridors, foraging for  
trouble like a sewer rat looking for food, he thought irritably to himself.  
  
He finally found the secure door, as he peered through its grime at the serial number  
etched into its metal surface. Carefully, he reached under his jacket for a card,  
then swiped it through the door's security slot. As the door slid open, he paused,  
his gun ready and aimed, and he went inside.  
  
As he walked forward, deeper into the cavernous room, he was surprised to see a solitary  
black-clad figure, surrounded by a dozen illuminated obelisks. He recognized the voice   
as she talked, apparently to the obelisk to her front.   
  
"I have never doubted that I did the right thing," she stated.  
  
He forced his ears to listen for a reply from whoever she was speaking with, but he  
heard nothing.  
  
"You cannot fault Yui for choosing their son's happiness."  
  
Has the Commander gone mad, he wondered, as silence answered Ayanami's words. Cautiously,  
he approached her from behind, his gun raised upward.  
  
Suddenly, the lights of the obelisks dimmed, and in the darkness he silently lunged  
forward, his gun aimed at the Commander's back.  
  
"Suzuhara," she whispered in response.  
  
"Commander. Good to see you."  
  
"It is not good for one such as yourself to be threatening someone like me in that  
manner."  
  
"My apologies, Commander. You seemed... unstable."  
  
"Unstable... I am well aware that some of your superiors remain suspicious of my loyalties,   
Suzuhara. But this is not the reason you came here."  
  
"Feel free to enlighten me, Commander."  
  
"You've done well, hunting down and eliminating the war criminals who slaughtered your...  
friends and family fourteen years ago. Now, you think you're finally on the trail of   
their masters, but what will you be when you finally face them?"  
  
"With all due respect, cut the angst babble, Commander. What's your point, Rei?"  
  
"There are memories that haunt us, Fourth Child. In your case, it is the face of a girl  
who was lost, horribly murdered, trying to save you. Fourth Child... this wish of yours  
to be... reunited with Hikari, to what distances will it take you?"  
  
Click.  
  
Rei's face remained impassive, eyes cold, as Touji released the safety of his pistol.  
  
"Don't mess with me, Commander."  
  
***  
  
As he woke up, he touched a bruise on his forefead, dark thoughts swimming through  
his groggy mind. He hated this job.  
  
This was the second time in two weeks that a former Eva pilot had knocked him down, he  
noted, very sorely. He didn't think it could be possible for the frail-looking   
Ayanami to strike him harder than the athletic Soryu had done, but the Commander had   
moved like lightning and had managed, however briefly, to knock him out cold.  
  
His head was throbbing. Damn Eva pilots. At this rate he was looking forward even less to a  
reunion with Shinji. There was, for one, the matter of a punch from fourteen years earlier  
that had not yet been avenged.   
  
As he looked up to glare at the Commander, he did a double take. The figure standing  
in front of him was not wearing the black jacket and uniform skirt of NERV Command. The  
Rei Ayanami looking down on him at that moment was the schoolgirl he had first met fourteen  
years earlier.  
  
This can't possibly be real, he thought to himself.  
  
"The past is more real than the conscious mind acknowledges, Fourth Child," replied  
Rei, as if reading his mind. "Memories make up who we are."  
  
There was a palpable sadness in her barren eyes as she said these words.  
  
The pain in his head became unbearable, and he buckled over in pain, but before he   
opened his eyes again, he caught another question she directed at him.  
  
"Do you remember the night you found me? The night after SEELE discovered my hiding  
place and captured me, along with one my students?"  
  
***  
  
"Yes, I remember. I remember you were briefed by Maya that night, while I stood  
guard outside your room. Commander Ibuki seemed in shock afterward; for a long-lost   
runaway, you were awfully sharp and well-informed, she said..."  
  
"Do you know why you're here, Rei?" asked the woman in the black command uniform and white  
lab coat, as she seated herself on the stool in front of the heavily bandaged patient.  
  
Rei stared at the woman in front of her. The older woman's eyes behind the eyeglasses   
looked sympathetic, even apologetic. Rei was tempted to smile, even a little, to try   
to reassure her, but her thoughts kept returning to what she was about to say.  
  
"Yes..."  
  
"Yes? You do?"  
  
"You need the secrets of Terminal Dogma, Doctor Ibuki. SEELE has spent years waging an  
underground campaign against the UN to wrest control of NERV, and to find the lost MP  
Evas. They want to resume the Human Instrumentality Project, and you want to stop   
them, but you're not sure how. You're not even sure what it is that you hope to stop.  
You think I possess Commander Ikari's secrets."  
  
"So you do know. Can you help us? Or rather, will you help us?"  
  
"Where are they?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"The pilots Ikari and Soryu. I would like to know how they fare, in this troubled new  
world. I need to know they are well."  
  
"They are. They were married, a few years ago. You should have come to their wedding."  
  
"Yet Soryu still fights. I saw her in combat uniform, briefly, among the party that   
raided the safehouse and rescued me and my friend."  
  
"She's a commando now... we retrofitted some of NERV's machines to make portable AT fields,  
and S2 energy cells to power them, but very few are able to operate them and use them  
well. Asuka is among the few who can. She's the best at it."   
  
"And they both agreed to this?"  
  
"Only she did. No war machine without an AT field can bring down a reactivated MP Eva,  
and you could say she had... a vendetta. Shinji, on the other hand, is... unable to use  
the AT generators."  
  
"I see. What of the reserve pilots?"  
  
"Most of them are with Asuka's forces, or with related units and organizations. You  
met Touji already, he was the one who identified you and carried you out of the safehouse."  
  
"And what of Hikari?"  
  
"She's gone... when the JSSDF raided NERV so many years ago, a team was sent to  
intercept and dispose of the Fourth Child. He escaped, but they captured her instead.  
When the Impact wiped out JSSDF command, that battalion joined one of the new daimyos'  
militias, and they kept her for their pleasure, and for SEELE's... experiments. We found   
her much, much later, but her mind by then was blank... and..."  
  
"I see... that explains some things."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"The general who captured us, he came to our ward, and tried to molest the girl who  
was captured with me, while she lay comatose in her bed. He laid his hand on her... he  
was reaching down... and I stopped him."  
  
"You generated an AT field. There was nothing much left of him when our troops got  
there."  
  
"Yes. Before he was gone, his memories were revealed to me. Memories of his victims  
through the years. He had... a particularly strong memory of Hikari. He was a young   
officer when they took her."  
  
"Well. He got what he deserved. But your friend is fine now, and we might even be  
able to save her arm from being amputated. She was one of your students at the school  
you stayed in, right? It's a good thing your AT field had no effect on her."  
  
"Perhaps. She might not remember anything. Or everything. Thoughts and memories   
have unpredictable lives inside an AT field. Please see to it that she is well."  
  
***  
  
Outside the room where Maya and Rei were meeting, two sentries stood guard. They wore  
blue-and-green paratroop uniforms, red berets and headsets, and what looked like strange  
metal vests emblazoned with the NERV logo. Each of the two commandos clutched   
a submachine gun, and stood several feet apart from the other, though they occasionally  
whispered to each other through their headsets. One, a sergeant, leaned casually against   
a wall, and maintained a bored expression on his face. The other, a redheaded lieutenant,  
looked close to getting agitated, and occasionally tapped her foot nervously on the   
floor, and occasionally paced around, her long hair flowing behind her.  
  
"Lieutenant Ikari," finally exclaimed the sergeant. "Stop that. You're making me jumpy."  
  
"Shut up, Suzuhara," muttered Asuka with a sigh. "I still don't see why Ibuki won't   
let us see her. We're just one door away, for pity's sake!"  
  
"You're really that eager to talk to her again? I really thought you hated her back  
when we were kids."  
  
"It's not that... never mind, you wouldn't understand anyway."  
  
"So when do you intend to tell him that she's here?"  
  
"If you want to ask a question, Suzuhara, go ahead and ask it."  
  
"Okay. So are the rumors true? That she's a clone of Commander Ikari's wife?"  
  
"Yes, mostly. That's supposed to be classified, but now that she's here it'll come out   
in the open anyway, if Commander Ibuki convinces her to take the job. She's practically  
my sister-in-law, I guess. A very... strange... sister-in-law."  
  
"Well, that's one mystery down," he sighed. "Just one more missing person to go."  
  
"I'm sorry we didn't find her," she replied, leaning sadly against the wall. "We will  
someday, don't worry."  
  
"She's a scrappy girl," he said, his eyes lost in dark memories. "Yeah, for someone  
who'd never touched a gun in her life, she was a great shooter. I'll never forgive  
myself for leaving her to save my own skin."  
  
"Look, Touji," started the Lieutenant, but she suddenly stopped to stare, mouth agape,  
at the girl behind the sergeant. "Hey, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be  
an invalid, where's your doctor?"  
  
The young girl, heavily bandaged but walking erect in her loose hospital gown, stared   
up at a startled Suzuhara as he turned to face her.  
  
"Touji..." she whispered, before fainting, and he caught her in his arms as she fell.  
  
"How did she get here undetected?" grumbled Asuka, as she went to check the girl's   
pulse, and fingered her headset to call for help.   
  
"How does she know my name?" he muttered.  
  
***  
  
Back in the present, in the darkness of Terminal Dogma, an older Touji Suzuhara slumped   
down on the floor, exhausted, as the black-clad figure of the Commander stood over  
him.  
  
"That... that girl who was assaulted in the raid so many years ago, I remember  
her... she joined the Joint Forces some years ago. She's helped me on occassion  
track down those beasts... secretly of course, but you know that already, don't  
you?"  
  
"You speak of Karima. Asuka's protege in Special Operations. Captain Karima Khan.  
Find her, Suzuhara. She has the answers you need. There are... things she remembers  
from the AT field that I used to save her."  
  
"But you want something from her too, don't you? What's your agenda, Commander?"  
  
The Commander's eyes regarded him, as if seeing through him and nothing of him.  
As if he didn't exist.  
  
"That is all, Agent Suzuhara. You are dismissed."  
  
He heard a rumbling behind him, approaching like an oncoming locomotive. He turned  
around to face the noise, and saw a huge fireball bearing down on him.  
  
Before he lost consiousness for the second time that day, he managed to articulate  
one last thought. "Crap," he exclaimed to himself, "I really hate this-"  
  
***  
  
"-this job. I really hate it," muttered the angry officer as she pressed the wristbutton  
on her combat uniform. She had just gotten out of bed, she had dressed quickly and   
instinctively as she had countless times before in response to the insistent high-security   
alarm, and under the present circumstances, she was very upset at the timing. Her hair  
still disheveled, she hit the response console on her wall with more force than she   
intended, to silence the alarm, and a familiar face on the video screen appeared.  
  
"What is it, Karima?"  
  
"Sorry to disturb you, Major, but we have positive identification of an MP Eva  
near our base, hidden inside a dead volcano. Request permission to form a recon team."  
  
"Fine then. I'll be right there. Relay the news to Tokyo-3."  
  
"Asuka," Karima ventured, hesitation in her voice. "If you want, I can handle it here   
and lead the team myself while, uhm, while you're with..."  
  
"Are you giving me orders, Khan?"  
  
"No, of course not. Whatever," replied the redfaced younger officer, sarcasm creeping   
into her words. "As you command... Major Ikari."   
  
"Karima!" she growled, but her deputy's transmission had already terminated. And behind  
her, a weary sigh punctured the still morning calm.  
  
"I thought you had changed your name back to Langley," muttered the man behind her, as  
he entered the room, while putting on a robe.  
  
"I did... I'm sorry," she whispered as she turned, worry and wistfullness etched in her   
eyes, to meet his empty gaze. "I have to go..."  
  
"I know," said Shinji, coldly. "Your duty. Yes, I know the drill. I've known the drill from  
the moment I first met the world's best pilot."  
  
"Shinji... don't start that again," she said. Pleading. Angry.  
  
"I'm not," he snapped, very wearily, as if repeating an old, tired line. "Just go."   
  
Shinji barely heard his wife's frustrated retort. He had his face in his hands.  
  
He had a sudden flashback of one of his dreams.  
  
It was a dream of Yui's parting words to Gendo as she fingered the wrist button of  
her plugsuit, the morning before the Eva consumed her.  
  
"But I have to go. It's my duty... Relax, dear, everything will turn out just fine..."  
  
And it was a dream of a younger Lieutenant Khan speaking, from the past.   
  
"Mr. Ikari, I'm afraid something happened to the Captain... our battalion was  
ambushed this morning..."  
  
Asuka had slammed the door shut as she left, by the time Shinji looked up, and felt  
his knees collapse.  
  
"But I don't want you to go... I'm ending up just like him... just like him..."  
  
***  
  
"But I wanted some part of your father to live on in you, Shinji," whispered a voice from  
a shadow inhabiting his dreams. "The part of him I want to remember, not this... not  
this..."  
  
The searing hot wind blew all around Rei, as she walked through the heart of a ball  
of flame that extended above, below, and around her in all directions, as far as her  
eyes could see. The rumbling blaze turned even the blackness of the Commander's uniform   
into a shade of glowing crimson, matching her silent, grim eyes.   
  
Everything in this dream was red, enraged...  
  
In front of her, a solitary metal folding chair burst into flames, became incinerated  
in a frenzied shower of sparks.  
  
The wall of flame in front of her formed suddenly into a swirling resemblance of Kihl's  
smiling, mocking face.  
  
"It all comes down to nothing, Commander!" snarled Kihl. "You were destined to lose  
everything dear to you. Get out! Out! Out, brief candle!" He continued, cruel laughter  
in his knowing voice. "Didn't you know? Life's but a walking shadow, a pathetic doll   
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale   
told by an an idiot, full of sound and fire and fury, signifying nothing!"  
  
Rei unholstered her sidearm as he spoke. She aimed, and fired. And fired. And fired.  
  
The gunfire sounds masked the quivering in her voice as she mumbled incoherently.  
  
The flames shattered like broken glass all around, in a million resounding crashes.  
  
And she found herself stranded on a peaceful, white sand beach, overlooking the ruins   
of Tokyo-3, and the remains of an MP Eva stranded in the clear blue water.   
  
A young girl, barely out of her teens, stood up to face Rei. The girl still had   
bandages covering one eye and one arm, and the remnants of a flimsy blue dress   
barely covered her body, but she was smiling, and her long red hair blew in the gentle   
sea breeze.  
  
"I know you've been wanting to meet him... Mother." said Asuka.  
  
A little boy, in a yellow-sleeved white shirt and tan shorts, ran up to the girl's   
side, to hug her leg. Asuka reached down to take the boy's hand, and he shyly looked   
up as the young mother guided her son closer to Rei.  
  
"Meet Ichiro Ikari... your grandson," said Asuka proudly, a soft smugness appearing in her   
smile. "He's really something, isn't he?"  
  
Rei bent down, and as she kneeled in front of the boy she reached out her hand to  
caress his cheek. The boy smiled, and she caught him in a sudden tight hug.  
  
Rei closed her eyes. "He looks like his father," she said, smiling.  
  
"Yes," whispered Asuka, her breaking voice suddenly choking back tears, as her entire   
body shook frantically, violently, hugging herself. "He would have looked like his   
father if only... I'm sorry I lost him..."  
  
Deep within the confines of NERV, in the Commander's quarters, Commander Ayanami  
dreamed. As she slept, a stream of tears flowed down her cheeks, and disappeared   
into her pillow.  
  
"Ichiro... how wonderful it would have been, if only you had been born..."  
  
As Rei's dream disappeared into the depths of her sleep, she could hear Karima's voice...  
  
"... the Captain was wounded in battle, but she's fine now! Her condition is stable...  
but... Mr. Ikari, the doctors found out she was with child, almost a month old... she's  
had a miscarriage due to her injuries... I'm so sorry... Mr. Ikari? Mr. Ikari? Are you   
still there?"  
  
Outside Rei's quarters, Agent Suzuhara stood guard. He exchanged no words with the regular  
sentries, until eventually sleep threatened to overtake him, and he returned to his  
quarters hours later.  
  
***  
  
The morning after was not much better.  
  
"You seem distraught, buddy. The Commander didn't dress you down, did she?"  
  
"It's nothing, Kensuke," answered Touji, as he leaned down to move a bishop forward  
on their chessboard, to threaten his friend's queen. "My face is just betraying my  
enthusiasm at playing this game."  
  
"You never were one to enjoy games like this. You've always preferred straight  
action."  
  
"I just play this out of consideration for my friends," muttered Touji, smiling  
as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat. He regarded his old friend,  
who had now removed his glasses to rub his tired eyes. They were getting old, and  
time was taking their toll on both of them, turning their youth into a dying dream,   
he mused, as a strange melancholy overtook him. "What's on your mind?" he managed   
to say, to his grim old friend.  
  
"Do you remember the mole we sent to SEELE, the one who disappeared in Berlin?"  
  
"You heard back from him?"  
  
"For the last time too, I'm afraid. He was... terminated before he finished his last  
coded transmission."  
  
"He reported something interesting, I gather?"  
  
"Yes, as a matter of fact. He found out who one of them is. The identity of one of our  
SEELE friends. Our mole was trying to transmit the information when we lost him."  
  
"From the look on your face, I'd say you weren't happy to find out who."  
  
"You can't imagine."  
  
"Try me."  
  
"The SEELE member is one of us. We have a traitor in our midst. The name our unfortunate   
agent transmitted was... 'Soryu.'"  
  
And with a tired sigh, Aida moved a pawn forward, sacrificing it to protect his queen.  
  
***  
  
Love.  
  
Duty.  
  
Pride.  
  
Loss.  
  
Revenge.  
  
Emptiness.  
  
She willed herself to shake off the emotions swirling inside her. Not now, she thought   
to herself. Not now.  
  
"Guten Morgen, Herr Kanzler," she said. Crisp and professional.  
  
"At ease, Major. Congratulations on your promotion."  
  
Asuka continued to stand ramrod straight, staring straight up at the video projection  
of the EU Chancellor dominating the empty, darkened room.  
  
"I have a lot of work to do, Herr Kanzler. What is it you want?"  
  
"Once your unit succeeds in destroying the last surviving MP Eva, we expect SEELE and   
their proxy armies to launch a last-ditch attack on NERV or the UN, somewhere, somehow.   
However, the American President has informed me that you have lately been...   
resisting... some of the more... sensitive orders we gave you."  
  
"I report to NERV and Commander Ayanami now, Herr Kanzler. You should take this up  
with her, through the proper chain of command of the UN Joint Forces."  
  
"You know as well as I do that her loyalties are suspect, Major. She is Gendo's creation,  
after all. I... think I know the real reason for your insubordination. I know this is   
difficult for you, Asuka, but you're the only one who can do all the things we ask   
for, and we must act for the greater good. Forget the past. This is not the time to  
be emotional. You should never have gone off and let your youthful impulses-"  
  
"Again, that is none of your business, Kanzler," she icily interrupted. "I don't want   
your words of wisdom, or your sympathy. You're not even qualified to lecture me on this!  
About marriage, of all things!"  
  
"That..." sternly mumbled the old man, whose video image wavered in the air above the   
angry Major. "That is no way to talk to your father, young lady."  
  
"You never wanted to be a father anyway. So leave us alone. You will keep your hands   
off him, Herr Kanzler Soryu."  
  
"He didn't want to become a father, or a husband, either. Not in his heart."  
  
"What will you try to tell me next? That I remind you of my mother? Is that it?"  
  
The Chancellor's face fell. Through the fog of her anger, Asuka wondered if the   
glint she saw in her father's eyes was one of regret.  
  
"What must happen will happen. I am... truly sorry. I truly don't want to see you  
hurt, in any way... believe me. Farewell, my daughter."  
  
The video image flickered out, leaving the Major alone, in the dark, with her thoughts.  
  
Love.  
  
Duty.  
  
Pride.  
  
Loss.  
  
"Is this why you left her then? You're all the same... you're all the bloody same..."  
  
Loss.  
  
"But I still..."  
  
Revenge.  
  
"I still..."  
  
Emptiness.  
  
***  
  
(To be continued) 


End file.
